The Resource For North Carolina Parkour and Freerunning

Negative vs. Positive

Today sucked. Yeah, I know. What a negative statment, right? That’s not me. I’m a sunflower. But listen to my day…

I woke and smelled something awful. My cat had used the bathroom floor as her litter box. Sometime during the night she had gotten sick in the kitchen -on the counter tops and the stove. …(UGH!) … Ten minutes after cleaning up the cat’s mess, I stubbed my toe on a very sharp corner of my coffee table. I actually had to ice the toe because it was swelling up. This threw my timing off for the whole day. … (AWE MAN!)… I called work to let them know I’d be a few minutes late, and I was told that I wasn’t needed today because someone else was taking my hours. …(FOR REAL?) … I’ve been wanting a dog. In order to get a dog, you must receive written permission from your landlord. So, today, I asked my landlord if I could get one. He said I’d have to pay an additional $300 non-refundable pet deposit. I’ve already paid this once for my cat, but he insists it’s for each animal. …(DOUBLE UGH!) … I hadn’t eaten so I decided to head to the grocery store. I got in my car and my rearview mirror had fallen off. It has lights on it so it was dangling by the wires. I gently cupped it to examine the situation and the wires snapped. …(WHAT THE HECK?)… As I headed to the grocery store, about a mile down the road, I got a flat tire. I now have a donut tire on my car. And I’ll have to take time off work to go get new tires. …(THIS IS NOT HAPPENING!)… I ended up parking the car on top of a bees nest and put the jack in the middle of it. I got stung 3 times. I’m allergic to bees. … (OMG is this day for reals?)

So here’s this horrible day, where one thing right after another goes wrong. Absolutely, terribly wrong. And I have a choice. I can either stay negative, pout, feel sorry for myself, be hateful and ugly towards the world, or I can look at the bright side.

The cat mess wasn’t hard to clean up, and I had all the supplies necessary to do so. My cat had actually killed a mouse in the house so I’m quite thankful. My cat was fine and didn’t need to go to the vet. … My toe was not broken and I can still walk. … I got a day off!!! I went for a walk outside, I was able to workout without worrying about the time, and I got to play with my LEGOs for several uninterrupted hours. … I can still get a dog. I convinced my landlord to cut the pet deposit a little since I’m an excellent tennant who has been here for several years. I can pay the deposit over several months so it doesn’t seem like such a huge chunk of cash. And I can bring home my puppy on Wednesday. … I have a second car -good thing I hadn’t sold it yet- so there is no rush for getting new tires. … While I’m allergic to bees, I’m not deathly allergic. I swell up and it hurts, but I’m not dead! 😀

So many times in life, people focus on the negative instead of the positive. They focus on the “I can’t” rather than the “I can”. Focus on what’s wrong and bad rather than the things that are right and good in their lives and in the world around them. I’ve lost 5 pounds this week. If I were to focus on the negative, that would never have happened. As in, “If you say you can or can’t, you’re right.” Or “the world has situations that happen to you, but YOU decide how you react.” Or “The pessimist sees the problem in every opportunity and the optimist sees the opportunity in every problem.” It’s a simple case of mind over matter. I know, it’s easier said than done, but it CAN be done. Having a positive attitude is a CHOICE.

When you’re training and conditioning and dealing with others in the world around you, are you keeping a positive mindset or a negative one?